Yesterday I talked about the original Haute Couture which means high fashion, is actually what all fashion used to be. This was the days of early designers when "fashion" and "trends".
Enter the way back machine and imagine a time when communications was so sloooooow, or fiefdoms, kingdoms and city-states were so divided and separated that what people wore just wasn't a trend. It was a "regional" style, not a fashion or trend.
Suddenly enter Charles Frederick Worth who developed a general style that would be worn by women in different regions - the same style for all regions - what a concept!!!! Then comes Coco Channel, Pierre Balmain, Christian Dior, Yves St. Larent and on and on.
Pretty soon - especially during the 50's, these designers had so much power that their very word was the last word on fashion. If your dresses were thin, full, long, short, tight, loose, long tall woman in a red dress - Oh - I got carried away.
This cause the first upheaval in fashion - the 60's....Twiggy, Mary Quant, Marimekko, Peter Max all represented a new style - you could wear long and short. OK short was really in, but the "Summer of Love" and hippie style was the long skirt.
So what happens to couture?....in the 50's during its height, couture was a beautifully constructed garment that was full of detail and gorgeous fabrics. But when the 60's hit, couture had problems. Why? Because this new style was so innovative and simple and elegant that couture had nothing to offer - - couture had to reinvent itself.
On top of this - Prêt-à-Porter or Ready-to-Wear (RTW), can retool these simple designs and offer them for a small fraction of what the designer is offering.
Haute Couture was dead and just waiting for a funeral. All through the 60's there was a huge debate about the value and existance of Haute Couture.
Then enter Givenchy (a la Audrey Hepburn)
and
Yves St. Laurent. He invented and perfected the pants suit. Couture was back. Good design and the "cut" were king of Haute Couture.
The 80's saw a resurgence of ornamentation to the extent that the aristocracy of Europe could only dream. Haute Couture was truly in it's element and the couture of the 80's was beautifully elegant and something that only Haute Couture could accomplish.
But the 90's saw the "Grundge". (Yes, there is not picture here - it's just not worth it!) I'm not a fan nor will I ever be a fan of this style. It was probably due to the over-indulgence and over-embroidery and over-ornamentation of the 80's called for a change, and over-reaction to that style. As Polly Melon said, "Ugly is beautiful" became the ultimate goal. But Polly - ugly is not beautiful: ugly is ugly and beautiful is beautiful no matter how many times you say it.
This caused a huge schism in the design world - was a women trotting down the run way half nude syle? Was a woman dressed in something so baggy you didn't know if it was male or femal style? Was this really a trend?
In the middle of this, Haute Couture took on a completely different look and feel. It went completely artistic.
There was a complete redo of how to do Haute Couture, and designers were given a free hand. In some design houses in Paris, the couture department completely shut down. This sort of designing is for the purpose of designing and that's it...sales -pft!!!....profits - who cares!!!....the bottom line - well as long as it was uneven, that's what was important! Needless to say this lost all practicality.
The funny part is the very clients who can afford the Haute Couture - usually $80,000 and up to whatever, were women who could no more wear this artistic design than a stick figure. The designers were not designing for their clientele. They were designing for the sake of design. Something had to give.
Believe it or not, Hollywood was a bastion of good design. The personal consultant was born, and movie stars hired stylists to dress them. Women, especially on the red carpets of Hollywood were beautiful again.
Now honestly - wouldn't you love wearing this dress? It's beautiful.
Hollywood wasn't the only source of good beautiful Haute Couture....
...Royalty.
Catherine Walker who designed for Princess Diana, is a typical example. Her understanding of the needs of Princess Diana and the her shape, created some of the most beautiful clothing for the princess.
This was rumored to be one of Princess Diana's favorite gowns and no wonder - Catherine Walker did an outstanding job of totally accentuating the princess's assets and you can not see anything of her figure faults with the added detail of the pearl beading that is obviously hand beaded - the jacket had to be cut out to know where the denser cluster of pearls were to be.
Wow! Doesn't Diana look terrific here. Diana wanted to look strong, beautiful and like she knew what and who she was. This was the night her husband was telling his side of the story of the divorce, and out she stepped in this drop dead dress to a fund-raiser and stole his thunder. She didn't do it because she followed some fashion trend - she followed the counsel and advice of designers who may not have been well known but did beautiful clothes.
This goes back to another blog I made on what makes a woman pretty. This isn't to say that there aren't wonderful fashions of today. It is to say we need more of it, and fortunately we are returning to that prettier vivre la différence look.